Misurata fighters display Gaddafi's war trophies

Published: Friday, October 21, 2011, 16:30 [IST]

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New York, Oct 21: Dramatic new mobile footage has surfaced showing that Libyan despot was captured bloodied but still alive and then killed by his captors, who then scrambled for trophies from the dead body.

The new footage has prompted the UN human rights chief to ask for an international investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Libya's ousted despot, US media reports said.

A UN human rights spokesman has described the mobile videos as very disturbing. But the new leaders of the country's National Transitional Council (NTC) have promised that Gaddafi would be given a burial today, according to Islamic norms.

New York Times said a small group of fighters from the port city of Misurata were at the vanguard of the force attacking Gaddafi's final hideout, stumbling upon him, hiding in a drainage pipe.

Giving the first hand account of the dictator's last moments, the NYT quoted the two fighters, 21-year-old Omran Shaaban, and his unnamed friend, who claimed that they were the first to confront the dictator lying injured in the pipe.

"When he saw us" he said in his trademark indignation "what's happening?". They said he was bleeding from his head and chest, but he was well enough to speak.

Without clarifying how Gaddafi was killed, Shaaban displayed in his hometown Misurata the trophies of the revolution.

They included Gaddafi's ''golden gun'', his ''satellite phone'', his ''brown scarf'' and one ''black boot''.

NYT said, amid the other souvenirs of war, the biggest prize was Gaddafi's body which was shuttled around Misurata, the whole of last night.

But later it was taken to a reception room of a pink villa as local military leaders came to take a look and snap pictures.

He had what appeared to be a small wound just below his chest and what looked like a gunshot wound to his left temple.

His face was clean, but his arms were caked with blood. Several visitors tugged at his signature locks. Fighters from Misurata who suffered grievously under a long siege by Gaddafi''s troops in the spring.

Shaaban said that they had got the war trophies as Gaddafi was carrying a silver gun in his hand and in a bag nearby was the golden gun.

Gaddafi's prized last possessions were windfall of spoils for the young man of Misurata, who have lived only half as long as dictator's rule in Libya.